South cross country team heads to Disney World

By: John Powers
   Who’s going to Disney World? The South Hunterdon Regional High School cross country team.
   Head coach Jim Zidzik and seven of his runners were scheduled to leave from Philadelphia International Airport Wednesday and head for Orlando, Fla., where they will compete in the 10th annual Walt Disney Cross Country Classic Friday. The race is 5,000 meters, and the Eagles will compete against runners from across North America, including Canada. The races are separated by school sizes.
   "The kids raised the money themselves; it was totally volunteer work by them," said Zidzik, who has been the head coach of the Eagles for 18 years. "We’ve been going for about five years. It’s really a lot of fun."
   The Eagles are 3-4 in dual meets, having beaten Warren Tech, Pennington and New Egypt and lost to Hackettstown, North Warren, Somerville and Delaware Valley. The Eagles were scheduled to run against Belvidere at home Tuesday.
   "We have a chance to beat Belvidere," Zidzik said. "We have a pretty tough and competitive league so we try to schedule schools more our size when we get a chance. We’re running New Hope, Manville. We’ve run against New Egypt."
   The team is led by freshman Dan Marley, junior Bill Hood, junior Wyatt Brady, sophomore Matt Shwab and freshman Wyatt Wiggs.
   "We have a small school, and it’s hard to find natural-type runners, kids who do it year-round," said Zidzik, a special education teacher. "We might have one or two who are year-round kids."
   The Eagles will run against New Hope and Solebury in New Hope next Tuesday, at Manville next Friday and will finish the dual meet season against De La Salle High of Philadelphia a week from Tuesday.
   The team then will prepare for its postseason, which begins with the Hunterdon-Warren Championships Friday, Oct. 21, at Delaware Valley High School.
   The Eagles beat Pennington 27-28 as Marley, Hood and Schwab took 2-3-4.